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Ethical Halloween Candy That Doesn't Suck

The cocoa in most mainstream chocolate is harvested by child laborers. Is it possible to have an ethical Halloween that's also fun and tasty?

By Nina Lincoff,
Nina Lincoff
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Amanda Hess
Amanda Hess
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Oct 20, 2011

Read about how one family decided to go fair trade this Halloween.

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Using waste from vitamin production, scientists can create a green battery.

Photo credit: Canva

Northwestern University scientists can create batteries out of industrial waste

Through molecular engineering, researchers at Northwestern University have found a way to turn organic industrial waste and chemical byproducts into batteries that can be used to supply energy to power grids. The scientists have found a method to contain a waste molecule, triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO), and use it to form a redox flow battery. Unlike lithium and other solid-state batteries, redox flow batteries don’t store energy in electrodes. Instead, they store energy by having a chemical reaction occur between electrolytes.

Typically, the batteries that power our electronic devices are primarily made from solid metals such as lithium and cobalt. Dependence on these metals has dramatically increased over the last decade-plus, increasing the mining of these metals and encroaching on more and more land. This has led to fear of scarcity along with concerns for the environment as technology increases the demand for battery power.

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Doing social activities could keep your brain healthier in old age.

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New research finds that social activity could prevent or delay onset dementia by 5 years

A new study of the elderly is showing that regular social activity could offset or delay dementia by five years. The study published by the Alzheimer's Association is showing that just playing games with folks regularly, volunteering, or just having a regular lunch with a friend can significantly slow down cognitive decline.

The researchers at Rush University studied 1,923 dementia-free seniors with an average age of 80 that underwent annual neurological evaluations. Cognitive function was measured through 21 different tests that assessed various types of memory along with perception of speed and visuospatial ability. Out of the total, 545 developed dementia and 695 developed some form of mild cognitive impairment within the five-year analysis. Accounting for other factors and adjustments for analysis, such as age, physical fitness, and other health issues, the results found that the participants that participated in social activities regularly had a slower mental decline or little to no decline at all.

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Groundbreaking gay artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ bittersweet history
File:"Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), National Portrait ... 2025
commons.wikimedia.org

Groundbreaking gay artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ bittersweet history

“I go to the flea market because it is full of small, hidden histories,” artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres said in 1995, during an interview for BOMB Magazine with fellow artist Ross Bleckner. Revisiting Gonzalez-Torres’ work now, the statement is poignant. In its own way, his work is also filled with small, hidden histories.

The Cuban-American artist–who was openly gay in the 1980s and 1990s, when it would have been more rare–became known in his lifetime for his conceptual art that lived across mediums of sculpture, installation, photography, painting, and more. Among his most noteworthy series are his “Candy Works,” whose installation in any given space featured an “endless supply” of sweets, from fortune cookies to chocolates to hard candies. Audiences were–and are still now–invited to have a piece and eat it. The work will ebb and flow as it is filled and refilled. It’s in these works that hidden histories–or maybe not so hidden–have most recently been discussed.

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75-year-old handwritten letter led researchers to one of the 'rarest minerals on Earth'
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Photo by Takemaru Hirai on Unsplash

75-year-old handwritten letter led researchers to one of the 'rarest minerals on Earth'

When sifting through old boxes or stacks of vintage papers, one often uncovers nostalgic relics from the past. But occasionally, these discoveries are far more valuable. Such was the case at the Bavarian Environment Agency (LfU) in Germany. While employees were digitizing their historic mineral collection of 130,000 exhibits, they stumbled upon one of the "rarest minerals on Earth." A handwritten letter in a drawer revealed the name of the mineral—Humboldtine. The LfU shared the details in a January 2024 press release, noting that more information would be published in Geologica Bavarica.

According to Mindat, an online mineral and rock database, humboldtine is “a rare authigenic mineral from the mineral class of organic compounds with the chemical composition Fe2+(C2O4)·2H2O.” It is a water-containing iron salt of oxalic acid, with color ranging in shades of yellow, mostly amber-yellow or lemon-yellow. With crystals small and prismatic, humboldtine forms when carbon compounds and iron-oxide react with water.

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Watch: The hidden cost of war
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Watch: The hidden cost of war


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